E3 Day 1 Update

With so much going on at E3 this week, I’m going to try and cover as much as I possibly can, which is no small feat.  I will miss some things, I’ll guarantee you that.  Head over to the forums and post about anything I missed, or to discuss what I’ve listed.  I won’t cover everything in depth, but I will hit the major announcements.  Let’s get started:

• Microsoft finally announced the real name for Project Natal, Kinect.  They showed Kinect Sports, a few fitness games, a Sonic game, a Forza game and an exclusive Star Wars game.  They also detailed Kinect video conferencing, voice controls for movies/music, and the motion controls for video/music as well.  The add-on hits stores on November 4^th with a rumored $150 price tag.
• Microsoft and ESPN announced their exclusive partnership that will have about 3500 previous games from the MLB, NBA, NCAA, and more.  The ESPN content will also be Kinect enabled.  It is free for Xbox Live Gold Members.
• Bungie showed the first glimpse of the Halo Reach single-player campaign.  It included a good bit of Spartan ass-kickery and even showed us space based dog fights.
• Epic showed us some pretty awesome footage from Gears 3.  The footage was 4 player story mode Co-Op.
• Hideo Kojima and Co. showed us Metal Gear Solid: Rising.  It showed Raiden slicing and dicing his way through numerous people, cars, and even a watermelon.
• Fable 3 was shown, as was a new Crytek game called Codename: Kingdoms.
• Microsoft unveiled the Xbox 360 Slim.  It retails for $299 and goes on sale later this week.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops trailer was shown.
• The new Madden will feature 3-on-3 online play.
• Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit was announced
• Assassain’s Creed Brotherhood was shown and given a release date of November 16^th

• The trailer for Dead Space 2 was shown and given a release date of January 25^th.
• Medal of Honor multiplayer beta starts on June 21^st.
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 is getting a Vietnam add-on.
• A demo for Crackdown 2 will go live on June 21^st.
• The 3^rd Summer of Arcade was announced, with the flagship games coming to XBLA being Konami’s Castlevania: Harmony of Despair and Square’s Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

I’m sure I’ve missed a TON of stuff.  As I said, hit up the forums and tell me what I’ve missed.